The Usual Suspects

The interrogation, the lineup, and the story telling are all intricate to this film and really is what makes this a great movie and a 90's classic.

The lineup scene is iconic and absolutely a fan favourite no doubt. Each characters personality is defined in that one sentence.

Kevin Spacey gives a heck of a performance and for me it's definitely his best.

The Usual Suspects is two movies in one. Enjoyable the first time you watch it, even more enjoyable the second time round. The first viewing asks questions that are answered in an `I could kick myself' moment in the final few minutes, and the second viewing is interesting because when you know the answers, the film becomes that much clearer. It requires a certain amount of commitment, though. Be warned, if you stop concentrating for a moment then the remaining running time of the movie will be spent trying to figure out how what you missed has lead to what you are now watching.

It concerns the story of five felons brought in by the police for a line-up and how those same felons reluctantly end up working for the mysterious and ghost-like Keyser Soze: a legend among the criminal fraternity, a man who no-one has seen and lived, a man so dangerous that he is thought to be the devil himself.you get the idea. The plot is rather intricate so I shan't bother to explain it here but it does rather make me think that Christopher McQuarrie, the writer, kept going to the office in the morning with yet another complexity to add that he thought up the night before. That's not to say it doesn't work, far from it, but it does leave you reeling from the sheer amount of information and names thrown at you from the offset.

Gabriel Byrne is good, but not flawless, as the tortured Dean Keaton who is torn between his career as a criminal and his forlorn attempt at trying to go straight, but his relationship with uptown lawyer Edie Finneran (Suzy Amis) is badly explored and I never felt it gave motive enough for his actions throughout the movie. Kevin Spacey is wonderful as the crippled Roger 'Verbal' Kint and is effective with the results both cunning and tragic. The real star of the movie, however, is a strangely accented Pete Postlethwaite as Kobayashi, supposedly Keyser Soze's right-hand man. He effortlessly plays a character of terrible coolness and poker-faced efficiency leading the dance that the rest of the characters must follow.

Director Bryan Singer has done well to bring such a momentous and involved screenplay to life and any gripes I may have cannot detract from the fact that the film, as a whole, is much better than the sum of its parts.

Such films like this should be enshrined in museums, simply due to the fact it destroyed the entire genre of mystery films. While this film was unique and captivating, no other mystery will ever accomplish this sort of cult status, single handedly shaping a genre. While most mysteries try to shock you too often with twists and even more twists, it turns out to be overkill. This film encompassed such ideas with flair and originality, which is probably the reason Brian Singer is sticking to sci-fi action films. Only Memento and The Game are the only recent mystery movies worthy enough to stand beside this film. Sadly, Singer has somewhat sold out by doing the X-Men movies, but I guess trying to make films like this would be too taxing. This film will always bring a smile to my face when I watch it with someone who hasn't seen this movie. A good viewing every time I watch it, the new special edition DVD is awesome.

When you think of 90's thrillers, you will probably think of Heat, Pulp Fiction, Silence of The Lambs and many more, and whilst Goodfellas is perhaps my favourite of them, but close behind is The Usual Suspects.

It's a wonderful, clever thriller, it's full of twists and turns, with surprises galore, it's a film that makes you think. Just when you think you know all, they pull the rug from under you, and make you think again. Direction is taut, the script is impressive.

I would argue this is one of Spacey's best ever performances, if not the best of the lot, he is phenomenal here, and really does stand out in a crowd of immense talent, hopefully he'll get his career back on track.

Gabriel Byrne and Pete Postlethwaite shine, as does Stephen Baldwin, a time where that handsome brotherhood seemed to pop up everywhere, but he was excellent also.

It's a super slick production, with some pretty fine special effects, and good use of pyrotechnics, a polished production, one that's not overdone.

This is one of those movies that you can watch and watch again, it simply doesn't diminish or lose any of its intrigue. You know there's a twist coming, you'll sit there waiting for it, and the first time round your jaw may drop, it's a very well delivered moment. The ending of this film is fabulous.

10/10.

I couldn't help but set rather high expectations for 'The Usual Suspects' as I went into watching this. I knew this was no action movie or any of the crap we get nowadays. This was true cinema! I was excited 'The Usual Suspects' is a mystery film about what cargo was on board the ship when it was destroyed and the events leading up to it as we are told from the only known survivor of that accident.

Around 45-50 minutes into the movie, I was starting to find myself a bit tired and thought the movie may perhaps have dragged along just a bit. I was becoming rather disappointed. Then the film truly began to change in such a way that I find it rather hard to explain. The characters began to get a little more entertaining, the pacing certainly began to pick up, the dialogue was getting more interesting and overall, I was more excited.

Then comes the amazing final twenty minutes with the plot twist and the story finally closing in perfectly, making the story more understandable. However, the final 5 minutes of the movie are some of the best moments of movie ever made and that is the ultimate plot twist which surprised the hell out of me! It was a cheering end to what ended as a great movie and a movie I would be more than happy to check out again and again! A-